‘The Beast’ Director Bertrand Bonello On The Film‘s Mix Of Love And Fear: “They Are So Related” – TIFF Studio

THE BEAST

Director: Bertrand Bonello

Screenwriter: Bertrand Bonello, Guillaume Bréaud, Benjamin Charbit

Logline: In 2044, A.I. has taken over the world, and a woman named Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux) is undergoing a treatment that will “purify” her by depriving her of strong emotions. In doing so, she experiences flashbacks to previous lives, going back to 1910 and 2014, where she interacts with a mysterious and possibly dangerous man named Louis (George MacKay).

International Sales: Kinology

Panelists: Bertrand Bonello (director)

First Screening: Sept.12. 2023.

Key Quote: “The first idea was to do a melodrama, which is something I’ve never done before, and that drove me to a short novel by Henry James called The Beast in the Jungle. For me, it’s one of the most heart-breaking, beautiful, and awful stories you can imagine. I wanted to mix this with some genre [elements], because, in James’s novel, love and fear are so related. So I wanted to have some ‘fear’ scenes,  and there is almost a slasher movie inside this film. The other thing, that came quite quickly, was the desire to do a film, for the first time in my life, in which the main character is female.” – Bertrand Bonello

Click above to watch the panel video.